limiting factor
Americannoun
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Physiology. the slowest, therefore rate-limiting, step in a process or reaction involving several steps.
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Biology. an environmental factor that tends to limit population size.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“As clusters scale, data transfer speeds are becoming a limiting factor, increasing the importance of optical components and materials,” Yardeni wrote.
From Barron's • Mar. 24, 2026
AI’s limiting factor is no longer algorithms or data — it’s the brute-force physics of data-center expansion.
From MarketWatch • Dec. 3, 2025
The global constraint principle explains that when one limiting factor -- such as a nutrient -- is alleviated, other constraints like enzyme production, cell volume, or membrane space begin to take over.
From Science Daily • Nov. 11, 2025
In other potential producer countries like Indonesia, power is a limiting factor too.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025
That's really the limiting factor to life support.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
